By Chiara Zuanni (University of
Manchester) Last
month I had the opportunity to participate in the annual conference of the DGUF
(Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ur- und Frühgeschichte e.V. – German Association for
Pre- and Protohistory). This year’s theme focused on public archaeology and
aimed to explore the possibilities and consequences of public
involvement with the past. During the two days which comprised the academic programme, many different
aspects of community archaeology, citizen science, and archaeological
communication projects were explored.

On
Friday, Sylvia Crumbach unpacked the relationship between re-enactment groups
and textile archaeologists: she argued that while both develop a great
expertise in ancient clothing, it remains to be understood how museum
reconstruction and images affect re-enactment costumes, and vice versa. The
controversies raised by public approaches to archaeological work were
highlighted in the afternoon, by two papers discussing metal detecting. Joch…